holographic loudspeaker testing a ssess i n g ra d i ate d so u n d i n 3 d s pace

f u n damentals mea s ure me n t appl i c at i o n s

Spherical Wave Expansion Near Field Scanning Far Field Characteristics

The complex transfer function H(f,r) relating loudspeaker input u(t) to sound pressure p(r) at a The sound field is measured using two cylindrical or hemispherical surfaces in the device’s near The frequency response of the loudspeaker at any point in the far field can be extrapolated from near field data.
particular point r under free field conditions, is described by the sum of orthonormal basis func- field. While still generating the same angular resolution of the directivity pattern, the hologra- 85 110

tions B(f,r) and it’s weighting complex coefficients C(f).

14
phic approach requires a lower number of measurement points than traditional techniques. 80 105

directivity index in dB
On Axis

sound power in dB
75 100 12

70 95 10

SPL in dB
30° Off Axis
Coefficients Basis functions 65 90 8
60 85
Number Application
60° Off Axis
6
55 80
4
of points 50
45
75
70 2
40 65
0

1 on axis response 35
100 1k 10k
60
100 1k 10k 100 1k 10k
The basis functions B(f,r) are general solutions of the wave equation in spherical coordinates, f in Hz f in Hz f in Hz
comprising Hankel functions of the second kind hn(2) and spherical harmonics Ynm. The coeffi- 100 sound power Frequency Response Sound Power Directivity Index
cients cnm (f) and the maximum order N of the expansion depend on the properties of the speci- 1000 directivity
fic loudspeaker being tested. 3D Directivity
5000 professional
systems Compact source Transducer in a baffle Line source Traditional directional characteristics are calculated based on the wave expansion and can be exported to external sound field
Orthogonal Decomposition simulation software with any desired angular resolution (e.g. 1°).
Total Sound Power The measurement of sound pressure in the near field, provides accurate amplitude and phase in-
The decomposition into orthogonal basis 90 formation with a high signal to noise ratio (SNR) by minimizing the impact of air convection and
180
°
160°

140°
180
°
160°

140°

-18dB

functions B(f,r) provides a comprehensive re-

120° 120°

n=0 temperature variation on the propagating sound wave. To ensure constant interaction between
100° 100°

theta in degree
80° 80° -12dB
80 60°

40°
60°
- 6 dB
40°

presentation of the 3D output without redun- the loudspeaker and the room, the microphone is moved around the loudspeaker on two cylin-

theta
20° 20°

0°

70
0°

n=1
-20° -20°
sound power in dB

-40° -40°

dancy. The maximum required order N of the drical scanning surfaces, instead of rotating the loudspeaker on a turntable. This is required in
-60° -60°

60 -80° -80°

n=2
-100° -100°

-120° -120°

expansion depends on the complexity of the

-140° -140°

50
order to separate the direct sound from the room reflections and will simplify the measurement -160°

-180°
100 1k 10k
-160°

-180°
100 1k 10k

n=3
f in Hz

directivity pattern generated by the loud- 40

of heavy loudspeakers. f in Hz

speaker. The total sound power generated by 30 Contour Plot Polar Plot Directivity Balloon Coverage Angle
20
Higher orders
a compact sound source at low frequencies
10
can be described by a low order of expansion
(N=3) where the monopole (n=0), dipoles
0
100
f in Hz
1k
Microphone Near Field Characteristics
(n=1) and quadrupoles (n=2) are dominant. Total sound power and contribution of nth-order
terms in wave expansion
Near field characteristics are especially relevant for studio monitors, smart phones, laptops and
Higher-order terms are required to model the directivity at higher frequencies in order to other personal audio devices. An observation plane can be positioned in 3D space to investigate
achieve sufficient angular resolution and accuracy. the spatial SPL distribution in the near field of the audio device.
The holographic measurement provides accurate phase information to compute the wave propa-
gation into the far field, helping visualize the binaural perception of sound.
target N=0 N=1 N=2 N=5 N=10
Magnitude Phase
Z-Axis

R-Axis

3kHz 3kHz

Target directivity of a loudspeaker at f=2kHz (left) approximated by wave expansions truncated at maximum order N=10

Sound Separation
Measurements of the sound pressure gene- Sound pressure distribution Wave front propagation
rated by a loudspeaker in a non-anechoic
environment show interference between the
direct sound component and the reflections
produced by the room (e.g. walls). At high fre-
Phi-Axis
Simplified Interpretation
quencies the direct sound can be isolated by
windowing the impulse response. At low fre-
quencies the windowing technique requires a The CEA 2034 standard specifies meaningful loudspeaker responses at specific points, for home
large distance between the speaker and the applications. This is helpful when considering the interaction with a room and when comparing
reflecting boundaries in order to provide suf-
ficient spectral resolution. Holographic processing of the sound pressure data, scan-
Parameter Identification loudspeakers regarding their performance at defined listening positions.
ned in two layers, separates the radiated direct sound wrad
from the reflections win, wtrans and wscat. CEA 2034 Characteristics
110
On Axis
H ( f , r i) Fitting error 105

115
115 pmeas(ri) e 55
100

dB Directivity Index
110
110
Direct Sound -
+
00
KLIPPEL

Listening
95
Sound Power
90
SPL in dB

N=0
u(f) -5
-5
Window
N=1 85
105
105 -10
-10
N=2
Reflection Free Frequency

Measured Sound Wave Expansion -15 Early 80

100
100
-15 N=3
-20dB 75
B 1( r i) C1 N=5 Reflections 15
error in dB

-20
-20
Sound Power DI
pmod(ri) -25 N=10 =1% 70 10
95
-25
95
B 2( r i) C2 + 65 5
SPL in dB

-30
-30
Early Reflections
90
90 -35
-35
60 0
Cn 100 1k 10k
B n( r i)
85
85
Room Reflections -40
-40
f in Hz
-45
-45

-50
Noise Floor
-50
80 order of
80
expansion N -55 Testing personal audio devices, the IEC 62777 standard specifies the meaningful characteristics
Sound Separation by Sound Separation by
-55

75
75
holographic processing time windowing
-60
-60
in personal acoustic zones in the near field of the sound source.
100
100 1k
1k 10k
10k

70
70 f in Hz
65
65
Double layer scanning produces A fitting error below 1% (-20dB) indicates good results. At high frequen- IEC62777 – Personal Acoustic Zones
cies where this threshold is not met, a higher expansion order may be 105
100
100 1k
1k 10k
10k redundant data, which is used to needed. Outside the loudspeaker’s passband (f < 30 Hz) the fitting error is 100
PF (Front)
PL (Front-Left)
f in Hz check the accuracy of the mea- caused by a poor signal to noise ratio (SNR) .
95 PR (Front-Right)
90 PD (Front-Lower)
surements. The fitting error Efit 85
SPL in dB

PU (Front-Upper)
evaluates the similarity between 80
75

Sound Field Extrapolation measured pressure pmeas(ri) and

modeled pressure pmod(ri) at all
70
65
60
PB (Rear)

measurement points ri. 55

tion 50

ex t rap o l a 100 1k 10k

raphi
c r)
In the far field, the sound pressure p is directly pro- ) B(f, f in Hz
hologH(f,r)=C(f
portional to the distance r and can be calculated p~1/r
using the 1/r law: „Doubling the distance reduces a rfar r
Single Point SPL Measurement
the sound pressure level by 6dB“. near field far field
Distributed Sound Sources
In the near field the 1/r law is not valid due to the phase shift between the sound pressure and
Accurate far field data can be determined by only performing a single measurement and by
velocity, which increases the apparent sound power for small values of r. The spherical wave
using correction curves. For any loudspeaker (1) correction curves can be easily generated by The directivity of distributed sound sources (line arrays, sound bars) can be determined by
expansion can describe the sound pressure at any point in 3D space outside the scanning
comparing the total sound pressure (direct sound and room) at the microphone position r0 and measuring each individual transducer of the loudspeaker system. Thereby, the measured cha-
surface (near and far field).
the direct sound pressure (no room effects) calculated using the full scan data and holographic racteristic of each transducer also includes shadowing and diffraction effects of the loudspea-
300
300
processing. The correction curve can be applied to other loudspeakers (2) of similar geometry ker cabinet. After holographic processing, the total radiated sound pressure is calculated by
with the same loudspeaker and microphone position in the room. superimposing the individual sound sources. By applying separate filters on each transducer
250
250
(e.g. delay, gain), the directivity of the active system can easily be controlled (beam steering).
200
200
order n of the Reference Measurement (Full Scan)
100
Reference Measurement
Near Field DUT + Room
sound power in dB

spherical waves 90

80
Direct Sound Near Field
1. Scanning each transducer output 2. Separate wave expansions 3. Superposition of all expansions
SPL in dB

70
150
150 60

monopole 50
Direct Sound Far Field

100
100 n= 0 40

n= 3
30
100 1k 10k
f in Hz
Speaker 1 Room correction curve Near Field correction curve +
50
50 n= 5 15

10
-16

-18
KLIPPEL
Multiplexer

n= 7
5 -20
SPL in dB

SPL in dB

-22
00 Near Field Far Field 0

n= 8
-24
-5
-26

n= 9
-10
-28

-50
-50 -15
100
f in Hz
1k 10k
-30
100
f in Hz
1k 10k +
n=10 Single Measurement (non anechoic) Near Field Response (Free Field) Far Field Response (Free Field)
.. .
.. .

100 100 75

0.1m
0.1m 1m
1m 10m
10m 95

90
95

90
70

65 +
distance
85 85 60
SPL in dB

SPL in dB

SPL in dB

+ +
80 80 55

75 75 50

70 70 45

Apparent sound power of the spherical waves of order n>0 decreases in the near field and stays constant in the far field of the 65

60
65

60
40

35

55 55 30

sound source. Speaker 2

50
100
f in Hz 1k 10k
50
100
f in Hz 1k 10k
25
100
f in Hz 1k 10k

References
Earl G. Williams: Fourier Acoustics – Sound Radiation and Nearfield
Acoustical Holography, 1999 Academic Press, ISNG 0-12-753960-3
CEA-2034: Standard Method of Measurement for In-Home Loudspeakers, Z. Wang, S. F. Wu: Helmholtz equation-least-squares method for reconstructing C. Bellmann, W. Klippel, D. Knobloch: Holographic loudspeaker measurement
2013 Consumer Electronics Association the acoustic pressure field, J. Acoust. Soc. Am., 102 (4), 2020-2032, 1997S. Wu, based on near field scanning, DAGA 2015 - 41th Convention, DEGA e.V.
G. Weinreich, E. B. Arnold: Method for measuring acoustic radiation fields, H. Lu, S. Wu, D. B. Keele: High-Accuracy Full-Sphere Electro Acoustic Polar Near Field Scanner 3D (NFS), Specification C8, 2015 Klippel GmbH,
J. Acoust. Soc. Am., 68 (2), 404–411, 1980 Measurements at High Frequencies using the HELS Method, Audio Eng. Soc. www.klippel.de

IEC (E) 60268-Xa Draft: Part A - Acoustical Measurements,
2015 International Electrotechnical Commission
IEC 62777 Ed.1: Quality Evaluation Method for the Sound Field of Directional
Loudspeaker Array System, 2014 International Electrotechnical Commission
www.klippel.de
October 2006, Convention Paper 6881
M. Melon, C. Langrenne, A. Garcia: Measurement of subwoofers with the Cone Vibration and Radiation Diagnostics, Application Note AN 31,
field separation method: comparison of p- p and p-v formulations, D. B. Keele: Low Frequency Loudspeaker Assessment by Nearfield Sound- 2012 Klippel GmbH, www.klippel.de
Pressure Measurement, J. of the Audio Eng. Soc., April 1974, Vol. 22, No. 3
C.-X. Bi, D.-Y. Hu, L. Xu and Y.-B. Zhang: Recovery of the free field using the
spherical wave superposition method, Acoustics 2012 Nantes, 1781-1786, 2012